A passionate community builder, Brenda Herchmer has a diverse background gained in a variety of government, education, business, and community sector settings. A writer, educator, consultant, coach and project manager, she has focused on enhancing the ability of seasoned and aspiring leaders to work collectively to address complex community issues with transformative change. She has specialized in community leadership, adaptive planning, community development, and organizational capacity building. She is the owner of Grassroots Enterprises and the Campus for Communities of the Future (a social enterprise/micro college) where…
More Posted on 06-13-19

There is nothing more rewarding than teaching a group of motivated adult learners.

They are quite different from the students I used to teach in a face-to-face college setting where it was sometimes necessary to channel my inner tap dancer to get and keep their attention. Instead, these adult learners are generally much more motivated and eager to learn.

Perhaps more importantly, they have much to contribute to the classroom in terms of information, knowledge, and wisdom.

That realization is continually reinforced for me not only during the webinars…
More Posted on 09-07-19

As I sat down to write this blog, I didn’t have a starting point. I wasn’t even sure about the topic. But, being good at procrastinating as well as being ready to be distracted, I did a quick scan of some old blogs on the topic that I wanted to address - trust. And, wouldn’t you know, I found a blog I had written some time ago. Although it was 7 years ago, it seemed to hold up and migth even more relevant today.

Partnerships are somewhat on my mind these days as the Campus for Communities continues to morph and grow. With proof of concept regarding the impact of our training, after many years, we’re poised to scale. In large part, it is the result of paying attention to, and learning from those at the grassroots of our communities who have been successful in ensuring active, creative, and engaged communities.

Why Collaborate?

Like many other organizations and businesses these days we are committed to collaboration and its benefits. The more collaboration…
More Posted on 08-18-19

My work as the Founder and Principal Collaborator of Campus for Communities of the Future involves delivering a lot of training sessions focused on the how-to’s of strengthening community building. As a result, I’m gaining traction in terms of becoming more comfortable and confident with both the content and delivery. However, I wobbled a bit recently when I started to prepare for a session for economic developers.

After all, up until now I have been talking about community building to people who already understand it is as a priority. That is…
More Posted on 08-18-19

While it really isn’t anything I can explain, every once in a while I stumble across a transformative concept that simply feels right. Sometimes I try to push the concept to the back of my mind because I know implementing that change is going to result in disruption, not to mention a significant amount of work. Ultimately though the concept keeps surfacing and draws me in like a moth to a flame.

While it really isn’t anything I can explain, every once in a while I…
More Posted on 08-01-19

I am blessed to have maintained a precious relationship with three colleagues with whom I worked over a number of years as part of an exciting community development initiative called ACE Communities. Although we are all now self-employed we continue to connect via monthly group Skype calls. Our conversations are a mix of personal and business but always always reflect deep, rich learning, and probably a little too much fun.

In anticipation of an upcoming call this week, one of the group suggested we provide a bit more structure by…
More Posted on 05-29-19

Author’s Note: This week a good friend told me that I would always have struggles being understood because I was always ten years ahead of my tiime. Thought I’d test that theory by going back into my archives to a blog I wrote almost exactly ten years ago. Found this one written in 2009….hmmm….I’m kind of thinking it might still be relevant? ________

Last week American Gene Simmons, best known as the demonic, blood spitting bassist with a creepy waggling tongue in the 1970’s hard rock band called…
More Posted on 02-07-19

As the holidays become a distant memory and we get back to the reality of more typical regimes, I’ve been reflecting about the upcoming year.

Rather than making resolutions which my monkey mind doesn’t always allow me to keep, I thought it might be an idea to focus on the community building work that continues to absorb so much of my energy. Here are…
More Posted on 01-05-19

I do believe that community leadership is ultimately about having the courage to step forward. But, on that particular day, I wasn’t feeling it at all.

I had just reviewed the content of a presentation I was about to deliver at a national forum and was beginning to second guess myself.

On an intellectual level I understood the community leadership learnings I planned to share were solid, innovative, and grounded by boots-on-the-ground experience. However my personal insecurities, (perhaps a subject for another blog?) in combination with working…
More Posted on 05-14-18

A while back I received an email from my alma mater advising me that I had been nominated for a Distinguished Alumni Award.

While I know it was an incredible honour and I should have been excited, the truth was that I didn’t feel it was something I deserved.

I am aware that I work really hard, have taken risks, and have had some success. However, my track record with employers and sometimes painful climb up the corporate ladder left much to be desired.…
More Posted on 02-01-18

I used to be a fan of English movie director and producer Ridley Scott.

Famous for films like Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator, I loved that at the age of 80 he was still actively pursuing his passion. After a recent CBC interview I’m having second thoughts.

In the interview, Scott discussed his latest movie, All the Money in the World, and what it took to recast Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer and then substitute all his scenes within…
More Posted on 12-29-17

I don’t know much about building cars or how to fix them if something goes wrong, but I would say I’m a pretty good driver.

Driving a car is also how I think about information technology. And, even though I don’t speak geek, know very little about coding, and struggle to fix anything when it goes wrong, I use technology better than most people my age.